Sunday, 13 July 2014

Hello all and welcome to another post. With the completion of my Quarte Bras project (for the moment at any rate, there is no guarantee I will not return to it at some point in the future as I have a tendency to do), I am now free to get started on my newest project. As most people may have guessed from the title, I intend to make a foray into the world of SPARTAN John-117, or as most people know him: The Master Chief. I had previously spent many laborious hours working out a set of rules by which I might play a skirmish game in the Halo universe. This would be two wins for me, as it would allow me to combine elements from both war-gaming and video-gaming, my two primary pursuits. The rules system is still a little shaky, and is yet to receive a proper field test, but two weeks ago I placed an order for a group of Halo Heroclix miniatures and now they have arrived.

The choice of Heroclix is something I struggled with for some time. I kept thinking at first that I should be able to hunt down models for this from generic science fiction sellers, as I had done for a Doctor Who project from over a year ago (no models were ever ordered). But while the human forces were incredibly easy to find repeated over and over again in various ways, the armies of evil, the alien Covenant Empire, proved so difficult that in the end I decided to take the short cut route. Doubtless the armies for this project will at their largest consist of only one maybe two small skirmish forces per side, but that is all I am after: a series of nice short games with small units with my friends. The main need for this was brought about by the distinct failure of several LotR games that used far too many models, and even though they were great fun, it was generally agreed that there was just too much happening. So, instead of just playing smaller games with the vast variety of Middle Earth models I have, I decided to start a completely new collection. I was surprised to find that I so much extra storage space being cluttered up by empty reference boxes.

Anyway, the models have arrived and my overall verdict is that they are not too shabby. I wouldn't say they are award winning, or that they had pristine paint jobs, but I think that overall they are quite decent models, that should be quite fun to repaint and rebase. I plan to keep both the clix bases and the cards, in case I ever decide to try and use them in a game with the system they were intended for, but I am going to put these models on better bases, and most likely repaint them, even if I only go so far as to apply a few washes.

Now without further ado, a few shots of my newest acquisitions. The human forces are going to need a second order at some point to beef them out, probably with a warthog, but the Covenant forces are easily sufficient for the long run I think.

A shot of everyone from front rank left to right. Two Sangheili (or Elites) with Carbines, four Kig-Yar (or Jackals) with pistols and energy shields, two more Kig-Yar with Particle Beam Rifles (snipers), two more Sangheili with Plasma Rifles, a big group of 6 Unggoy with pistols (grunts) as well as 1 with a fuel rod cannon out the front, 2 Sangheili Zealots and 2 human marines with battle rifles and 2 marines with M7 sub-machine guns.

The two Sangheili with Covenant Carbines and Plasma Rifles.

Regular Unggoy with pistol, side and front on.

Unggoy with fuel rod cannon front.

And Side.

The Sangheili Zealots with the distinctive blue energy swords.

Kig-Yar with their energy shields and plasma pistols.

The Kig-Yar snipers, who will doubtless lay many an unwary model low.

The human marines with Battle Rifles (left) and SMGs (right).

It is most likely obvious to an observer that these models still have their Heroclix bases attached, but I do plan to remove these with care, and replace them with a more suited circular base. One with flock and gravel and all those things that make bases worth while. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this insight into my future project, I hope to have many posts on it in future.